Mattress stitch

Seaming the banana laceweight tunic - thank goodness for mattress stitch!

Sneaky preview..

.. of the latest colourway of my laceweight merino silk sparkle yarn - Stormy Skies. 

Dramatic!

Available soon..

Remodelling peaches

I'm really pleased with how well my hand-dyed Perran Yarns have sold in my Etsy shop.

The only one that hasn't done so well is the laceweight merino in this delicate "Peaches and Dreams" colourway.

Its blue, green and purple sisters sold out, but only 1 ball of this one has found a loving home.

The yarn is gorgeous - smooth and soft - but obviously this shade is not what lace knitters want. Time for a remodelling event.

First of all I need to re-skein the balls so I can overdye them. 

I've done one ball this afternoon and had to stop - this is a lengthy manual task winding back onto the niddy-noddy, so it won't be rushed.

More tomorrow.

You can tell it was Christmas..

.. because I actually knitted a project for myself!

Finished but unblocked

Quite a while back I bought a skein of heavenly Violet Green Silk & Cashmere 4ply yarn in the gorgeous Trance colourway.

I decided to knit myself a Good Luck Cowl with it.

The pattern is very easy and doesn't take long to knit up.

Yarn sadly now discontinued

The yarn feels gorgeous but the colour did bleed all over my fingers each time I knitted with it.

I guess I'll be washing this a few times before I wear it!

Update:
I gave the cowl a real good wash and soak until the water rinsed clear and have worn it for 2 days now. It's gorgeously warm and soft - and my neck hasn't turned purple... Fabulous!

Wedding Season

I have found myself drawn to wedding designs recently - I don't know whether it's because it's the season for beautiful summer beach weddings or because there's a ball of heavenly ivory silk yarn next to my chair!

The latest item is a crocheted short scarf or head wrap. I crocheted it with a 2.5mm hook in a simple trellis stitch and added some mother of pearl chips to each end. The weight from the pearl accentuates the drape of this gorgeous yarn.

It can be used either as a scarf or wrapped around the hair for a luxurious hairband. The silk feels so wonderful against the skin!

Winter weddings

Tada! Here's my latest addition to my Etsy shop - and it made me very happy to make them!

Not that I'm going to a winter wedding or even know any winter brides to give them to. I just really enjoyed making them.

The Sublime Angora Merino yarn is just that - sublime to touch. I adore this stitch pattern and they are a quick knit.

I spent quite a while handsewing on the 130 glass seed beads but, strangely enough for me, I enjoyed doing that too!

I even liked staging the photographs as I had remembered that I still have my own wedding outfit pieces. I found them out, fondly looked through them, and decided to use my veil as the background. Quite romantic I think!

Alison from AMIDesigns must have been thinking along the same lines as she has just listed this beautiful bracelet too.

Gorgeous!

Sublime of course

I have an almost FO to show you - just adding the final touches...
I've created a wristie - a cross between the much-loved Mrs Beeton style cuff and a handwarmer.

It's closer-fitting to provide more warmth around the back of the hand, but I've used a fish-scale lace pattern with a picot edging to keep the prettiness.

I have large hands, so the wristie would be longer on an average size female hand.


I used 1 ball of Sublime Angora Merino yarn to make a pair of these.

This shade is 45 - Chilli - but it's actually more of a pinky red than I'd envisaged. Colours never show accurately on monitors! It's still lovely nevertheless.

I'm going to sew the buttons to the cuff for decorative purposes only - and they do co-ordinate beautifully with the yarn colour, although my camera refuses to agree in the artificial light of these dark evenings.

This yarn is unutterably soft and luxurious. I defy anyone to not stroke it! I see more of this in my future projects...

BTW, if you love the cushion cover you can see more at Maries Cosy Cushions. She's a UK-based Etsy seller and I see more of her covers in my future too!

Record-breaking bolero

Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes! I had part sun, part rain, so it was pretty good. :-) More about my pressies later.

Well I gritted my teeth and seamed and crocheted the edging on this bolero the night after I've finished knitting it - that's definitely a new personal best!

It's taken a little longer to get around to sewing on the clasp though - if only my sewing box wasn't buried underneath a pile of sewing repairs that I need to do... ;-)

Here's the finished item, modelled by my eldest DD who is the proud new owner.

I used 100g (yes just 2 balls!) of Sirdar Luxury Cotton 4ply on 4mm needles with my favourite lacewing stitch.

This bolero is lightweight and delicate, but still a comforting layer over bare arms in a cooler summer breeze. A big hit!

I'm now formatting the pattern instructions and creating a couple more sizes for the design. I'll be asking for a couple of test knitters (probably via the Test Pool forum on Ravelry) for each size and then the pattern will be available for sale in Ravelry, my Etsy shop, and anywhere else I can think of!

Yet another one for the seaming pile

Well the His and Hers washcloths raised a few laughs - the recipient had no idea what they were, and took a few prompts to figure out what they said, but got there in the end. The evening wedding reception was brilliant - lots of drinking and silly dancing - a good night out.

Remember I said that the Lacewing Bolero-ette should be a quick knit? Well here it is in it's current raw state (click on it for a better view):

I finished the knitting at tea-time, so now it's on to my favourite part - the seaming. Wooppee. Anyone going to guess how long that will take?

Knitting? Oh yes, that...

Remember the Lacewing Bolero from 2006? I have worn that garment so much. So when my eldest DD decided she wanted something similar for herself, I couldn't refuse.

This is the back of the bolero, in the same lacewing stitch pattern that I love so much.

I'm using some Sirdar Luxury Cotton 4ply that I bought from ebay in the great neutral "Vanilla" shade. This is a yarn with outrageous yardage!

My DD specified the waist length, sleeve length, front shaping, etc, and I've designed the pattern using my Knitware software as before.

The back is done, and I'm up to the shaping at the top of the first set-in sleeve. It should be a fairly quick knit (famous last words!)...